Citation

Furas A. J. Australas. Coll. Road Saf. 2014; 25(2): 62-64.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Australasian College of Road Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Since 2010 Latin NCAP has been testing the most popular vehicle models available in Latin America. It was demonstrated that Latin America's best selling models are 20 years behind Europe, US, Japan and Australia in terms of vehicle safety. After four years and more than 35 models tested, finally the region is beginning to have popular cars offering the highest safety levels. The most basic equipped versions, which are the ones selected by Latin NCAP, showed that the absence of airbags exposed the passenger dummies to serious injuries. The structural performance of the passengers' compartment was weak to poor in the best selling models of Latin America. That meant that at least 450,000 new cars every year were sold with 1 and 0 star safety levels. Latin NCAP has also had to deal since its beginning with the lack of technical regulations for vehicle safety performance under frontal or side crash situations. This situation offered Latin NCAP an extra challenge still under development. Latin NCAP tested cars - even with airbags - being sold in the region and they still offered low protection levels to its occupants due to weak structures. One powerful result that can illustrate the risks of an unstable structure even with two airbags and pretensioners is the JAC J3 that scored only one star in adult occupant safety. Some governments in the region are requiring airbags by law and the previous example shows clearly that airbags alone may not solve the problem and that a performance requirement is needed. Some countries in the region are focusing on the introduction of performance criteria regulations. Cars with no airbags showed high risk of life threatening injuries for passengers. In cases where the same model was tested with and without airbags, the benefit of the airbags was clear in the result bringing some models from one to three stars, and another from one to two stars. This also shows that there is room for improvement in some cases with not very dramatic changes needed to make the cars perform better in the test. Latin NCAP also compared models tested in our program to the same models tested by other NCAPs such as Euro NCAP. There is a clear difference in safety equipment of the same models; like less airbags, no ABS or no ESC for example. But we have seen cases where the structures of two same looking models behave in a very different way. Examples of that are the Nissan March compared to the Nissan Micra, or Renault Sandero and Dacia Sandero. In those cases the Latin NCAP structure was rated as unstable and intrusions were higher as well. Latin NCAP received comments from consumers claiming that the airbag versions of the models tested are much more expensive than the basic, non-airbag version. In some cases the consumer must pay from 18% to 33% on top of the basic price to get just double fontal airbags. In some cases this is explained by the "package" that offers the manufacturer matching airbags with other non-safety related items like Bluetooth or alloy wheels. In one sample case of the same European model but different structural behaviour, having the Latin NCAP model with no airbags, but the European model six airbags, ABS and ESC the price difference at the same time between those cars (one sold in Europe and the other sold in Latin America) was less than 1000 Euros. However these price differences are strongly linked to the local taxes. Cars in Latin America are as or more expensive than in Europe and they offer a lower level of occupant protection. Some consumers are wondering why this is happening and how it can be fixed. Latin America is composed of emerging economies. Unfortunately some manufacturers present to this market "low cost cars" that offer low to no safety levels. Recently Latin NCAP presented two price comparisons that showed that the so called "low cost" models other than offering very low safety levels do not seem to be so "low cost" compared to European models with high basic safety.

Language: en